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The 404 236: Where we're thankful for Turbaconducken

It doesn't matter if you get down with turbaconducken or veggie alternative tofurky, it doesn't matter if your first sex ed lesson was in Cantonese or involved videos of a crowning baby, you can definitely get down with The 404 pre-Thanksgiving show! We talk about Truman Show syndrome, Ann Coulter's ironic injury, forgiveness, the PlayStation credit card, alien squids and the death of Batman!

Dan the Mantern here. Okay, gross out time in five syllables: TUR-BA-CON-DUCK-EN. Only in America, people, can one indulge in the abomination of nature that is a stuffed chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey that's wrapped in bacon. This, my friends, is the reason we have half-ton mothers and fathers. What's so bad about plain old turkey? Anyway, however you do the holiday, have a great Turkey day, 404 fans! The 404 is thankful for you!

EPISODE 236 Download today's podcast … Read more

Web site fingers politicos on economic woes

This week's 60 Minutes included a story about what have been called "financial weapons of mass destruction"--credit derivatives or credit default swaps.

CBS News' Steve Kroft reported that a vote in Congress in 2000 on an obscure bill called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 was one of the causes of today's meltdown on Wall Street. (Disclosure: CBS News and CNET share the same parent company.)

That broadcast inspired the editor of a political watchdog site to post a list of the current members of the U.S. Congress who voted for the final … Read more

Verizon's profits soar on wireless

Correction at 11:25 a.m. PDT: This story incorrectly stated that Verizon is currently selling the BlackBerry Storm. Verizon has announced it will sell the Storm, but it is not yet available for purchase.

Verizon Communications' wireless business helped boost profits for the third quarter as the company's management team reiterated confidence that the company will weather the brewing economic storm unscathed.

"We had what we thought was a good quarter, despite the economic uncertainty around the world," Verizon's CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Monday on the conference call with analysts and investors. "And it … Read more

Using the mobile phone as a credit card

I admit it; I've been put off by the term "contactless payments." But it's an emerging area that deserves some attention.

If you are in Asia, you know what I'm talking about. People there have been making payments with their mobile phones using what's called "near-field communications." Just wave the handset in front of a reader and voila, the transaction is done.

In the U.S., we've had RFID technology embedded in cards. But the long-term goal is to eliminate the need to carry credit cards, building access badges and transit … Read more

Forrester Research lowers IT spending predictions

Forrester Research on Wednesday revised its best-case-worst-case scenario for U.S. IT spending. Rather than possibly posting an upside above the base, Forrester is warning, at the extreme, the situation could get worse than its September base projections.

Back in September, Forrester made a base prediction that IT spending would grow 6.1 percent in the U.S. and between 7 to 8 percent overseas. Forrester, at the time, also noted a potential existed that IT spending could exceed its base projections.

But a dramatic downturn in the markets, a virtual chokehold on credit availability, and a financial crisis that … Read more

Verizon CEO optimistic despite economic crisis

NEW YORK--Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg is confident that his company and much of the communications industry will make it out of the current economic crisis unscathed.

Speaking Tuesday at the Media & Money Conference, a joint production of Dow Jones and Nielsen, Seidenberg brushed aside concerns that the credit crisis and an impending recession will have a big effect on Verizon's bottom line. So far, the company hasn't seen a significant drop in subscriptions or revenue, he said.

"We expect some impact," he said. "But our view is that we will weather this." … Read more

Bailout plan bails out clean-energy sector

The massive U.S. financial bailout plan, signed into law Friday afternoon, renews existing tax credits for renewable energy and includes rebates for plug-in hybrid drivers.

Representatives from the wind and solar industries have lobbied for months to extend the credits to ensure continued growth. Without the supports in place, they warned business would stall, resulting in thousands of lost jobs.

In addition to the renewable energy "extenders," the law boosts subsidies to invest in non-conventional fossil fuels--so-called dirty fuels, such as making liquid fuel from coal or sand and rock. Also included are breaks to develop technologies … Read more

Bailout bill loops in green tech, IRS snooping

Bailout type Cost to taxpayers (Source: Reuters) Financial bailout package approved this week up to or more than $700 billion Bear Stearns financing $29 billion Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalization $200 billion AIG loan and nationalization $85 billion Federal Housing Administration housing rescue bill $300 billion Mortgage community grants $4 billion JPMorgan Chase repayments $87 billion Loans to banks via Fed's Term Auction Facility $200 billion+ Loans from Depression-era Exchange Stabilization Fund $50 billion Purchases of mortgage securities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $144 billion POSSIBLE TOTAL $1.8 trillion+ NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PER U.S. CENSUS … Read more

Senate passes bailout bill

The Senate on Wednesday did what the House of Representatives failed to do on Monday--pass a bailout bill.

Nearly three-fourths of Senators passed the bill late Wednesday. The House is scheduled to take up the bill later this week, though it is expected to be a tougher fight there.

Meanwhile, the total cost of the bill went up significantly in that two-day period. That's because the bill passed by the Senate includes a variety of other measures, including billions in tax cuts, along with authorization for the Treasury department to take $700 billion off the books of … Read more